I think stress has become the atmosphere inside my body, not just a response to bad days

Dear Delyara, It is no longer one hard week. It is how my shoulders sit. How my jaw wakes up. How my heart responds to messages. How quickly sound reaches me by evening. How tired my face looks before anything particularly bad has even happened that day. How much my body seems to live one step ahead of impact. I am functioning. That’s what makes it easy to dismiss. Still, my body is speaking a language that no longer sounds temporary. I don’t want this to become my normal voice from the inside. I think part of me is already adapting to it, and that adaptation feels dangerous.